Senate GOP Versus Top Astorino Advisor

A dispute between Bill O’Reilly, a top advisor to Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino, and the leadership of the state Senate Republicans grew today after O’Reilly authored a critical Newsday column knocking the GOP conference as part of the problem over the last 3-1/2 years.

O’Reilly, a prominent political strategist who has worked on several Astorino campaigns, criticized Senate Republicans for “complacency” and being little more than a “speed bump” to hurting the state’s economic standing.

“Indeed, the senate’s surrender stance has probably squandered whatever momentum New York Republicans once had as the party of reform following the elections of Rudy Giuliani as mayor of New York City in 1993 and George Pataki as governor a year later,” O’Reilly wrote in the column posted this afternoon.

“Since the early 2000s, state voters have drifted away from the feckless GOP in droves. Consider this: When Pataki beat Mario Cuomo in 1994, there were about a million more Democrats than Republicans in New York. Today, Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost 2.5 million, and that trend continues.”

This was not O’Reilly’s first shot across the Senate GOP’s bow.

O’Reilly on Twitter Monday called Senate GOP Leader Dean Skelos a “prison punk” after the Long Island Republican provided a congratulatory quote on a press release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo on the historic improvement of the state’s general obligation bond rating.

Astorino responded to the “prison punk” statement in a radio interview on Talk-1300, saying that he didn’t condone the language. He did not, however, call for O’Reilly to apologize or retract his words.

Needless to say, the Senate GOP wasn’t happy with O’Reilly – or Astorino, for that matter. But it wasn’t until after the publication of the Newsday column that the gloves came off.

A statement from Senate spokeswoman Kelly Cummings included a laundry list of accomplishments by Senate Republicans.

“Contrary to what (O’Reilly) contends, Senate Republicans have been working overtime to help hardworking taxpayers and their families succeed,” Cummings said.

“Our agenda matches the people’s priorities, and without the contributions of our tax-cutting conference most of the meaningful taxpayer relief initiatives enacted into law over the last two decades wouldn’t have ever seen the light of day.”

Cummings called O’Reilly’s criticism “deeply concerning.”

“These disgraceful comments are beneath the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino, who he should be helping,” she said. “Mr. Astorino should have a very frank conversation with Mr. O’Reilly as to whether these actions are worthy of his campaign.”

The reality is that the successes Cuomo experienced in his first term are very much tied to Senate Republicans – and vice versa – which is something both sides continue to tout, albeit selectively.

The Senate GOP has allowed for key votes on the legalization of same-sex marriage and gun control, while Cuomo has also racked up significant economic victories, including a property-tax cap and three budgets in a row passing in advance of the April 1 deadline.

Cuomo pledged as part of an endorsement deal with the Working Families Party to help give Democrats full control of the state Senate last month, though in recent weeks has adjusted the rhetoric to tout his bipartisan credentials as the legislative session winds down.

It’s also worth noting O’Reilly worked for at least two Senate GOP candidates in 2012 – Bob Cohen and Eric Ulrich – both of whom lost to their Democratic opponents.

O’Reilly is writing what Republicans are thinking statewide. Bruno/Pataki were bad with bloated budgets, tax hikes (at the local level to pay for mandates imposed by the GOP/Silver/1199 alliance), and nonsense like gun control, but Skelos has taken being a useful idiot for the Left to the new level. He’s Cuomo’s lackey, fearful of the NYT editorial page writers, and has compromised to the point there are no principles left. As the GOP’s base got kicked in the shins more times than they can count, they lost their identity. Not surprisingly, they lost membership and failed to attract new registrants. Presto — the GOP as a permanent minority party until some real leadership emerges that will stand for something.

Mike Flynn

The IDC Coalition was a betrayal of Democrat voters, and it only helped get watered down legislation passed, as well as keeping Sen. Dean Skelos and company employed as a power brokerm so all hopes for change could die on the vine in terms of cleaning up Albany, NY.

Mike Flynn “Middle Class Mike’

Gerry O’Brien

Bravo to Bill O’Reilly!

Instead of a coalition fighting for goals that Republicans and Democrats can be proud of, Dean Skelos has cobbled together a Frankenstein monster of a coalition that is focused on political power, the size of district offices, and the number of staffers they can employ.

Cathy Schwarz-Sapeta

Bill O’Reilly would you trade your kids for big bucks? Why in heavens name are all of the states withdrawing from Common Core and Albany is telling the voters -it’s the implementation? The anti-Common Core movement will not allow another year to go by with zero legislation to get us out of Common Core.